Conspiratorial talk show host and Mini-Mr. Creosote Alex Jones was ordered by an Austin jury to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a six-year-old child victim of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, the New York Times reports. The amount of punitive damages has yet to be decided by the jury, and Jones still faces three other trials from other families and victims.
It took the jury just hours to determine how much Jones should pay the family of Jesse Lewis, one of 20 first graders killed by a gunman at the Connecticut school. Jones had pushed various conspiracy theories that the shooting didn’t happen, that the families were “crisis actors” playing a role in a government plot to take away guns, or that it was a “false flag” attack to implement liberal policies under the Obama administration.
In many ways, Jones shot himself in the foot with his over-the-top theatrics during the trial, which culminated with closing arguments Thursday morning when his attorney claimed Jones was prepared to pay one single dollar for each of the eight defamation claims against him.